Tuesday, December 13, 2011

FIFTY POUNDS Gin

Fifty Pounds Gin is produced in a small and legendary distillery located in the south-east of London, with a tradition of more than two centuries behind it. The method is carried out in a still manufactured by the legendary John Dore & Co Limited, in which a perfectly balanced, secret combination of herbs, spices, fruits and flowers, together with grain spirit (a neutral alcohol, previously distilled four times to achieve a greater purity) is distilled.

The distiller, Master of the Worshipful Company of Distillers, has made use of the process used centuries ago, known as Batch Process Distillation, which is the purest and most efficient way of obtaining ‘the finest gin spirit’.

This is a delicate and painstaking process, involving the Master Distiller throwing away both the ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ of the distillate, selecting only the ‘heart’, right at the point when the taste and alcohol content are optimum. Then the spirit is thrice filtered, reducing any further impurities and achieving optimum smoothness.

The resulting distillate is left to settle for no less than three weeks, thus allowing the botanicals’ essentials oils to blend perfectly with the grain spirit.

The final step towards achieving the precious gin is to balance the distillate obtained with the same type of neutral alcohol, together with demineralised water, to achieve the perfect balance and alcohol content.

The resulting bottle-ready gin has an alcohol content of 43.5% – the ideal percentage for drinking – whether neat, with tonic, or in a dry martini. A higher alcohol content risks distorting the combinations and a lower percentage would rob the combinations of character.